My Autotrail Cheyenne 696G Ducato X 2/50 based motorhome has a Dometic RM 7361 fridge fitted - Single door with ice box. It has three settings on the dial for 12v, 230v and Gas. I have seen pictures of exactly the same model except it has a fourth position marked 'Auto' or 'AES' on the energy selection dial. I think this is the 7365 model.

As the basic components won't be much different I was wondering if it's possible to retro-fit the AES switch and circuitry to make it work? If so does anybody know if someone sells a kit to do it?

It wouldn't be that hard to rig it up myself, at least the part which selects 12v when the engine is running and reverts to gas when you stop as this is just a relay linked to the engine run wire. However I can't really be bothered as it's only a minor inconvenience to switch it over manually. I do often forget to go from Gas to 12v when I'm rolling and this is not too clever when you go into a petrol station to fill up, especially as I have a Gaslow LPG conversion so I'm sometimes filling up with LPG even though it's on the opposite side of the vehicle.

I know I should remember to do a check before moving off and shouldn't have the gas on in motion -blah-de-blah-de-blah- but I'm a bit of an airhead (ask me how many times I lose keys/passports/phones etc.) and at 41 years of age this is unlikely to change much in the future. In fact it will probably get worse!

The difference between me and the thousands of others who're doing this as well is that I recognise I'm hopeless at remembering anything (I amaze myself that I can run business employing 25 people!) and am far too disorganised to go through a check list each time I move off.

The more I can get automation to mitigate my inbuilt lack of intellect the better!

I've trawled the internet and sent an email to Dometic (no reply yet) but can't find anywhere that's got the part listed and a price so I can order one. The Dometic site says 'Where to buy' on the right of the page but then askes lots of questions about if you're interested in 'industrial refrigeration' and such-like before compiling a completely useless list of dealers!

You could try www.leisurespares.co.uk (01423 32110
but I have a feeling that it may now be a discontinued item due to the fact that it was not a very successfuel conversion.
Please let me know if that is the case.
Mashy

Here's the reply I got from leisurespares so that's the end of that! Looks like I'll have to make my own if I get a spare day to fiddle around with it. Should be fairly easy to rig up if I only want to go from gas to 12v when I start driving and back again when I stop. Thanks for pointing me to them anyway...

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Hello Mark,

Yes I am afraid these kits have been discontinued as they were not entirely successful and there was little demand for them, although they do still appear on alot of Dometic literature.

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